Hi,
I am trying to install Free BSD release 8.0 on my Dell XPS Studio laptop along with already existing Windows partition. (150GB for Win Vista, 30GB for win backup and 130 GB for Free BSD). To do trial I first installed it on Sun virtual Box in Windows where it installed without any complaints. However when I tried clean install it on the desired partition it refuses to recognize both my CD/DVD drive and usb disk during "Select installation media:" menu in sysinstall. Please do help me out as I need it to study for an course in upcoming semester.

In text the problem it shows is:
"No CD/DVD devices found! Please check that your system's configuration is correct and that the CD/DVD drive is of a supported type. For more information, consult the hardware guide in the Doc menu."
Its amazing because:

* My installation media (release 8 CD) is already in CD/DVD drive.
* I have tried both CD and DVD release so no chance of corrupted media.
* How then the sysinstall menu came in first place if it didn't recognize my DVD or DVD drive
* It installs pretty well in both virtual environments by Sun virtual box and VMware in Windows.

I am also writing my total specifications from dell site. Please do aid me in solving this problem as I am making this daring transition from Ubuntu to Free BSD (mainly for its academic importance and clean coding style). I lay high hope on this forum.
Specification:
Dell Studio XPS 13

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8700 (3MB cache/2.53GHz/1066Mhz FSB)

Operating System
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Specifications - Operating System

Operating System
Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium, 64bit, English
Specifications - Operating System

I got the same problem with the 8.0 dvd from two differents laptop:
- toshiba satellite 1800: cd/dvddrive: unable to find the dvd from sysinstall (I booted from the cdrom drive and I started the install from). I wil try to boot from the floppy and switch to the cdrom drive to get the packages.
- hp compaq mini 110c-1100ca (netbook): booted from the usb drive, sysinstall starts but cannot find the drive to extract the packages (base, usr, ...). So I boot from the 8.0 img on a usb pen drive and I did the installation

__________________religions, worst damnation of mankind"If 386BSD had been available when I started on Linux, Linux would probably never had happened." Linus TorvaldsLinux is not UNIX! Face it! It is not an insult. It is fact: GNU is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not UNIX”.vermaden's:linksresourcesdeviantartspreadbsd

I have used FreeBSD 6 and FreeBSD 7 CD's on *many* different computers (Both desktop and laptop) at work, and I've never experienced such an issue.
I haven't used FreeBSD 8 a lot yet ...

If sysinstall works, you can also fetch the distribution sets from other sources and circumvent the CD entirely, you can use FTP or HTTP to fetch them from the FreeBSD servers, but you can also mount an NFS filesystem, or mount an USB drive and get the sets from that ...

__________________
UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things.

I start with the img and I told sysinstall to fetch the cdrom drive (usb). I cannot use the network (new netbook compaq mini 110c 1100ca, the wifi is broadcom (no driver) and the ether card is a atheros R8132).

Not certain, but I think if you can drop to a shell or
something, in sysinstall, and load the 3rd,fourth of four
usb drivers,
*guessing*
access will be restored to the usb drive.
You may however, be missing any of the
below
geom_bsd.ko
geom_label.ko
geom_mbr.ko
to have devices appear for the usb drive before
its files can be seen.
So you may need four or so .ko's for the usb install.
ahci_load="YES"
ehci_load="YES"
as well as the three above.
would go into /boot/loader.conf if the fix works
I know the method for "escape to loader prompt" but
am unusure of how to do it in sysintall.
Drop to a shell and find those .ko files??